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8.8.07

British Farmers 'very Scared'

Aug 8 2007 (TODAY)

Tests give rise to new fears of cattle disease spreading

LONDON - Tests confirmed a second outbreak of foot-and-mouth diseasesouthwest of London, raising fears the highly contagious virus couldspread to herds across southern England.

Environment Secretary Hilary Benn said a second batch of cows, tested onMonday, were within the 3-kilometre-radius protection zone set up onFriday.

The outbreak occurred 6.5 kilometres from a laboratory that producesvaccines containing the same rarely-seen strain of foot-and-mouth disease.

Mr Benn was expecting an initial report yesterday to see if there havebeen breaches in security or safety at the laboratory, which is the focusof investigations into the outbreak.

The laboratory is shared by the government's Institute for Animal Healthand a private pharmaceutical company, Merial Animal Health. Bothorganisations said they had found no evidence of a breach in biosecurity.

Mr Roger Pride, who runs a farm near Godalming, southern England, wherethe first outbreak was confirmed, said Tuesday he believed contaminationof a local sewer could be behind the cases.

The outbreaks come on the heels of widespread flooding, and investigatorsare examining the possibility that the waters might have helped spread thevirus.

"The theory that the sewer which overflows into part of the field wherethe 38 cattle were grazing could be the cause is an obvious possibility,"Mr Pride said. He said no one at the infected farm had any contact withthe vaccine laboratory.

News of a second outbreak fed fears of a repeat of scenes in 2001, when 7million animals were culled and incinerated on pyres, devastatingagriculture and rural tourism in Britain.

"We were starting to think this virus had been contained and maybe we weregoing to be getting back to normality in a few weeks," farmer LaurenceMatthews, who owns the farm where the second infected herd grazed, toldBBC.

"Now this has set us back again and most farmers, and I've been speakingto a few, are very, very scared," he said. Matthews said the infected cowsbelonged to a fellow farmer who used his land.

Britain has banned the export of livestock, meat and milk. It has alsohalted the movement of cattle, sheep, goats and pigs nationwide to preventthe spread of the virus. - AGENCIES